The district added the Reading Recovery partnership this fall, a short-term intervention program for first-grade students struggling to read. The program is used in more than 80 Kentucky school districts.

The program pairs students one-on-one with a Reading Recovery teacher for 30 minutes a day for 12 weeks.

Over the summer, the district hired 10 teachers, one for each elementary school, and a teacher leader.

Amy Grimm, a district intervention coach who monitors the program, said the goal is for students to become an average reader at the end of 12 weeks.

Even though Oldham County Schools don’t have a large number of underperforming readers, Grimm said the district believes any number is too many.

On a daily basis, each Reading Recovery teacher instructs four students individually. By Thanksgiving break, 38 of the 40 students made significant gains, Grimm said.

“They have become sharp observers of their students, allowing them to make critical moment-by-moment decisions,” Wadsworth said of the teachers.

Garland, Shelby County’s first Reading Recovery teacher in the early 2000s, received her original instruction from Wadsworth. Garland continues her training process at the University of Kentucky and by visiting other school districts.

Garland said Reading Recovery prevents students from becoming lost in a classroom setting.

“Those confusions become habits,” she said. If a student’s bad habits go unnoticed for several years, they can become difficult to change, she said.

Grimm agrees early intervention is key — it means the achievement gap can be bridged before it becomes too large, she said.

She presented information about the program to the Oldham County Board of Education Monday night.

Board chair Joyce Fletcher said her son, now 20, struggled with reading as a youngster. As a parent, she said she is incredibly grateful for the Reading Recovery team’s efforts.

Superintendent Paul Upchurch commended Reading Recovery staff for “changing the lives of many first graders.”